Precipice
by Tormalyne
Summary: Sora's figured out that Riku is a lot closer in his view than stars that have always been distant above him. [RikuSora]


Kingdom Hearts and all associated characters belong to Square and Disney. I make no claim to them, as they are being used without permission. If the companies really want to lose the free advertising, they're welcome to make a big deal about it. 

  
  
The last time that Sora had seen these doors was when his best friend smiled at him and was locked out of his life for what was supposed to be forever. After that, he had left the girl he might have loved standing on a beach, waiting for him, while he went off to make things right. The forfeit of his happiness was supposed to only be temporary. The thing was, Sora wasn't good with concepts like "forever" and "never," and maybe that was why he had been able to keep looking, even when it meant he had to undo so much of what he'd done to save the worlds. 

Sora knows now that all things change. He's seen it all his life, even when he didn't notice, in the tracings of waves on sand, and trees battered by a tropical storm. It's there when he looks at the sky, that once was missing so many stars, or when he looks at the sharp edge of the Keyblade, that is now a jagged black rather than smooth silver. Sora has changed, too, just like everything he's ever known, and when he gets back to Kairi, her Sora won't be there for her to welcome home. He can never be the person she is waiting for again. He's sorry that he has to break that promise to her, but he's found that there are some things more important to him. 

He's had plenty of time to think about this. It's been years since Sora set out to find the white doors of Kingdom Hearts, and during his journey, he changed enough to stop caring about what he did as long as his means were achieving his desired end. Only a few meteors have fallen from the sky, but more will follow. Sora knows that, like he knew when the time came that he could fly between worlds again. He was the one that destroyed the barriers, after all, and unlocked the keyholes that sealed the doors in his way. He thinks that maybe, he was willing to do all of that because, after a while, he couldn't take the monotony of the endless path and rolling green fields. It also could have been that he just started missing his friend too much. He's not ready to ask Donald which one it was. All he had known was that when he found Riku, he'd lock everything and put things back again. They'd do it together. He hadn't started thinking of "if" rather than "when." He wouldn't let himself do that. 

Looking at the white doors, Sora can think that everything that has happened means nothing to anyone but himself and the boy waiting for him on the other side. Everything he's done has something to do with happiness, and with being together at the beginning, but not the end. It was about the girl he left and will never come back to, but now it's about the boy in a world of shadows, and his heart, that has changed. 

Ansem's riddle was that there would be a boy with a key, who would both save the worlds and destroy them. It's taken until now, when he's so close to achieving his goal, for Sora to figure it out. He saved the worlds then, but right now, he's destroying them, all for someone he's known for a shorter time than there have been kings to care about the fate of other worlds. He thinks that's all right, though, because he's also been alive for less than that time, too. He's learned his own perspective, even if no one else has, and Sora's figured out that Riku is a lot closer in his view than stars that have always been distant above him. 

When he opens Kingdom Hearts and sees Riku again, Sora thinks that he might kiss him. He hasn't seen his friend for so long, but he's dreamed about him, about what he's done and what he's become in the world beyond the doors. Sora's dreamed about the past, on Destiny Islands when it was only the two of them and they didn't have visions of bigger things than being together all day, and he's dreamed of the present, without Riku. The dreams that come most infrequently are the ones that he wants to linger on, because they're dreams of a future that he could be content in. In these dreams, Donald and Goofy have taken their king and gone back home to their castle, and Kairi has found a new prince to carry her away on a white horse. Sora is not alone, though, because he's with Riku, and they spend their time talking, and laughing, and doing the things that friends should do. 

Sora knows that these are only dreams, and that the connections that are made by friendship are more easily broken than he would like to think. That's why he's going to kiss Riku. He'll open the doors, and kiss him, and even if Riku doesn't kiss him back, he doesn't think that Riku will mind all that much. Then, they'll be something more than friends. That way, no matter what, nothing will come between them again, and Sora won't have to lie awake some nights wondering about what ifs. 

He'd like Riku to kiss back, or maybe even for Riku to be the one to kiss him. Sora misses being taken care of, sometimes. It's not that he misses the new confidence he has, or the ability to fight for himself. There are very few things he would give up if it meant not being able to protect his friends any longer. Sora's just sick of being the one that everyone depends on. He's tired of being the only one who gets called on when there's trouble; he liked it when people solved their own problems instead of only looking to him. He's tired of being seen as some legendary figure, when all he really is, now, and maybe always, is a boy who doesn't know how to get home, and wouldn't go anyway, even if he did know the way. He's not going without the boy he's spent so much time searching for. 

So, Sora'd like it if Riku liked him in THAT way. He knows that Riku is still his friend, from when they were younger, and that they've both changed. It's only appropriate, he thinks, that they change everything to match. He'll open the doors, though, and what happens will happen. He's ready now, and he doesn't want to wait anymore. He thinks that Riku's probably fed up with waiting, too. So, he'll find Riku, and then everything will be how it should be, and then they can go, together, and make the worlds be how other people think they should be.

All Sora knows is that, in total, he has locked nine keyholes and unlocked five more, met too many new people, and is about to recover the one person he wants to spend his life with. 


End file.
